Basically says it plain and simple in the title. I have a 1985 Chevy Caprice wagon 305 V8 and a 700-R4 transmission. My trans blew everything but 1st and reverse so I found a decent trans and swapped it. I was careful watching any wiring harnesses in the way. There is only one harness that goes over the transmission and thats the only one close to or in the way from installing the transmission. That harness actually had 2 of the 3 wires melted together. I temporarily fixed that by wrapping each wire with a good layer of electrical tape.

After I finished putting everything together and topped off fluids, I took the test drive and all my gauges were working fine... and the transmission It was a pretty easy swap if I say so myself. But anyways... I went to work that afternoon and parked it with working gauges. After work, I turned the key and no gauges. Now with the car running, it does have the oil light on but nothing is wrong with it. I checked the fuse for the gauges and its blown, so I replaced it. Then immediately I turn on the key and the gauges work but then almost instantly the gauge fuse blew. I tried another 20 amp fuse and then it blew immediately also. I tried just for giggles a 25 amp fuse and then it started smoking underneath my dash. So I unplugged that fuse.

It sure sounds like I have a pinched power wire. So I went back to check everything, and I did find another wire with the insulation rubbed off so I wrapped that with alot of electrical tape but it was only a ground wire that was pinched between the trans dipstick tube and the engine block.

So has anybody done this transmission swap on a GM and end up with my predicament? If so or if you have any idea what the hell is going on, please feel free to post. Thank you all.

Yup definatley, maybe when the tranny was swapped some wires werent run correctly and were resting on the transmission they probably melted and now its bare metal touching metal. which causes the wire to ground and shorts it out

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